Marketers are coming under increasing pressure to improve the efficiency of marketing campaigns and to do a better job of measuring the results of those campaigns. Senior management requires that marketing resources be optimized, and holds marketing management accountable for resources and expenses.
Enterprise software is increasingly sought as a tool that can improve the effectiveness and accountability of marketing programs and campaigns. However, many marketing executives are reluctant to stake their careers on this technology because it can be expensive, hard to implement, and doesn’t always squarely address their initial requirements. In addition, enterprise marketing automation solutions can be difficult to blend with existing processes and tools.
There are two primary pain points that drive the adoption of enterprise marketing automation software. The first is a need for greater efficiency. Various studies have shown that getting the right message to the right person at the right time, through the right channel, helps turn leads into prospects and prospects into sales. But performing such a customized, individual approach manually is just not possible in large enterprises. It requires a sophisticated set of automated tools, coupled with a resource library, to be efficient. The second pain point involves accountability. Senior management wants to know how marketing budgets are being spent, and what those dollars are producing to benefit the bottom line. Without tracking and measuring campaign results at the individual level and rolling them up, this data is tedious, if not impossible, to generate.
Useful communication with potential clients is essential to the success of a business. Customer relationship management, or CRM, needs to contain the information necessary to provide marketers with the tools they need to conduct highly targeted, relevant communications with prospects and customers. Precision marketing such as this is efficient and effective.
Determining the right enterprise marketing automation solution is extremely important. Initially, a business must examine their own marketing process and identify the objectives required at each step that need improvement. This might include shortening the sales cycle, improving response rates and reducing the cost per sale.
Once the initial objectives have been determined, they need to be broken down into steps or functional requirements. It is imperative that a business look ahead to future requirements in addition to current needs. This will be useful in determining if a potential software solution will be able to expand in functionality and capacity as the business grows.
When potential software solution candidates have been identified, it is important for each department within the company having a stake in the implementation to assist in the decision making process. They must also be committed to the configuration, training and use of the product. Typically the sales and marketing departments, as well as the IT and Customer Service organizations will be involved.
Enterprise marketing automation software can be deployed under several scenarios. An on-premise solution requires the highest level of up-front investment, including hardware and software implementation. This solution also offers the greatest degree of security, because all data is maintained within the enterprise. Another popular deployment option is software as a service, or SaaS. Under this model, software and data are hosted and maintained by the vendor. One of the benefits of this approach is a lower initial investment than an on premise solution. However, the longer-term cost advantages are less clear. A third deployment model is called mid-source. This model allows organizations to maintain their customer and prospect data in-house, while outsourcing computational and technical services.
Once the decision to employ a software system has been made, a committed central contact point or owner needs to be determined in order to maintain good vendor relations and ensure the successful day-to-day operation of the system.
A well researched and implemented enterprise marketing automation solution which is actively and earnestly used by all required personnel can make a significant improvement in the efficiency and profitability of a marketing organization. This will be realized by an increase in qualified leads, more refined prospect targeting, improved customer relations and better overall client satisfaction which then lead to improving a business profitability.
Kristin Hambelton is the Director of Marketing at Neolane. Neolane provides the only enterprise marketing automation software specifically designed to manage, automate and optimize programs across traditional and emerging channels including direct mail, email and mobile.
